Happy New Year! Fall 5769, 2008 in the common calendar has begun an active season at Kol Ami. Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkoth all come in a flurry of preparation, celebration and contemplation. My experience was extraordinary. Although I have come to appreciate and enjoy the quality of religious worship experience at Kol Ami, this year my new position added a dimension. Seeing the service from “back of the house,” having the opportunity to address all of you and interacting with many of Kol Ami’s members made my holiday very special. I hope that you appreciated the incredible effort made by Gerry Genezer and the Ritual committee and were as moved and inspired by the sermons delivered by Rabbi Hechtman as I was.In this month’s President’s Corner I would like to use this opportunity to acknowledge two people who have made unique contributions to our community. One is well known to you and the other may be a new face in your Kol Ami experience. Each brings an important contribution to us and is deserving of recognition. As I move forward in future Bulletin pieces, I hope to shine this spotlight on other individuals whose contributions are especially noteworthy and whose work expands the program we can offer here.
I was please to nominate Jeff Wolansky for a “Vision and Reality Award” given to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary volunteer leadership in synagogue life. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Connecticut Valley Region, of which we are a member, gives this award. Jeff is being honored by USCJ for his contribution at Kol Ami, a process that he described in his speech during the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
Jeff and his family have always impressed me. The Wolanskys embody my sense of Kol Ami as a place in which people can find a project that speaks to them, develop it as a reflection of their unique definition of Jewish life, and as it grows, see themselves grow along with the project. In Jeff’s case this commitment has extended through his work on the Board of Directors, his role as Vice President, his tenure as President, his current work with the Torah study, his leadership in the e-mail listserve that we operate and the multitude of other tasks that he “owns.” In addition, his wife Cheryl leads our religious school, teaches there and supports so many others of Kol Ami’s activities.
Cheryl, Jeff and their sons Jacob and Zachariah are a constant presence in our community whether leading or participating along with us. They are as likely to be seen at Board meetings as cleaning the synagogue after services, putting up Sukkot for members or cutting up chicken and making martinis at one of our dinners. Yasher Koach to the Wolanskys.
My second acknowledgement is Lisa Johnson. Lisa has stepped up to develop our Kol Ami website and has become a central part of my effort to develop better communications within our community. Lisa has spent innumerable hours in this work and I want to thank her and use this opportunity to describe the project that she “owns” and explain why I think it is such a crucial part of our future development at Kol Ami.
Lisa has developed http://www.kolamicheshire.org/ This is our website and our public face to the Internet. Lisa has developed this resource to be a place to learn what is going on at Kol Ami, check schedules and calendars, enroll in courses, handle some purchases (such as Gala tickets,) learn about our rabbi and administration, find ways to volunteer and even to purchase items with our new, soon-to-be-rolled-out new logo.
Our website is an exciting place with links to other Jewish resources, a library of past bulletins, announcements of donations and ways to donate, and an archive of forms and administrative materials relative to our community. (In case you missed my Rosh Hashanah speech, you can find it on the website along with the talk given by Dr. Bernard Spear and Ethel Marcus about their experiences moving to Kol Ami from other synagogues. You can also read Jeff Wolansky’s speech in which he describes how his Kol Ami commitment grows over time.) Lisa is continually expanding the website and has a galaxy of knowledge to bring to bear to make this an essential vehicle in our growing community. I hope that you will go to the site, browse the various functions, offer comments, and send email to us as you have questions or ideas for the project.
In this way I hope to get into all of your homes on a regular basis and share my ideas and observations. I hope to stimulate you to do as Jeff and Lisa have done, fulfilling our challenge to “pick up a shovel.”
However e-mail and our website only accomplish the function of being there to give information to you when you come to use it. The key is you and your willingness to come to it and to get involved.
As we have expanded to 140+ families, we have become more diverse. Our diversity includes old member and new ones, older members and younger ones, single members and families, families with young and families with older children. We have members who desire worship services and members who desire educational experience. We have members who are looking for social expansion in the Jewish sense and members who are simply looking for social expansion. We have members who are actively pursuing busy careers and members who are gracefully retired. We have full-time Connecticut residents and “snow-birds.” We are a multitude of variety.
While this diversity is a glorious testimony to growth and certainly something to be celebrated, it brings with it a challenge to remain effective communicators. We can no longer depend on existing social connections to “spread the word” as a normal function of the daily friendship circles in which we circulate. I have become acutely aware that while Kol Ami offers a large variety of experience and opportunity, this is only an asset if people are aware of it and are comfortable approaching it.
When I took office I asked the Board of Directors to try hard to use e-mail as a way of communicating with me. I assumed that since I use e-mail to handle a wide variety of communication tasks, it would be an easy way to handle the tasks at Kol Ami. I realize that e-mail is an effective tool for announcements and getting the word out. It reaches into our homes and lives on a real-time basis and is in our faces if only to be deleted as we scan the daily collection of received mail.
However e-mail is a poor way to obtain replies or to ask for help or to have discussions. These functions are better done in person, by phone or through other avenues. As I described during my talk on Rosh Hashanah, Kol Ami is not “they.” It is “you.” Unless you get and stay connected, you cannot really appreciate this. Conversely, if you begin to get and stay connected, you will find this aspect of our community compelling and rewarding.
To accomplish this aspect of the communication feedback loop that I think is critical at Kol Ami, I have formed “teams” of congregants, each under the leadership of one of the Board members. The Board member, “team leader” will be responsible for contacting the 10 or so members on their team. They will call you to announce opportunities for your involvement, to discuss with you your interests and how you can find opportunities at Kol Ami that can be venues for these ideas. Team leaders will call you asking for help with a variety of community needs, from synagogue cleaning to committee membership. They will at times ask for your time, at other times they will ask for your money. We hope that in this way you can develop a more intimate and personal relationship with the leadership of Kol Ami and discover just how close you are to the “top” of this short pyramid with its very wide base. Please know that there is no pressure to be involved, or to donate time or money. This is all about making Kol Ami accessible and available to you and helping you to discover how ours is a community of “us.”
Please feel free to discuss you ideas with the board member who calls you. You can call me directly (or use e-mail) or send you ideas or questions through the website. Have a wonderful fall and stay in touch.
